Picks and tips

Windows Weekly tip of the week: Try Windows Intune 2. It's free through the end of the year, works on up to ten PCs, and is a surprisingly awesome PC management solution.

Windows 7 app pick: Social Connector for Microsoft Outlook.Yes, I hate Outlook. But I know that millions of people rely on it, and since I've been testing various Exchange-based email accounts, I've been using it lately. And if you use Outlook, you should take a look at the Social Connector, which lets you plug into Facebook, LinkedIn, Windows Live Messenger, and Viadeo from a single UI.

Windows Phone 7 app pick: Beards & Beaks. An actual, in-house game developed by Microsoft (most Microsoft Game Studios games are actually made elsewhere). Garden gnome fun for $2.99.

Windows Phone 7 app pick #2: NYTimes for WP7. Official Windows Phone app for The New York Times.

What I Use

Like many, I was hoping to see a new Lumia flagship before the end of 2014, and while I was pleasantly surprised in some ways by both the Lumia 735 and 830, neither offers the level of performance or best-in-market camera quality I had come to expected from Microsoft/Nokia's high-end devices. So I pulled the trigger on an unlocked Windows Phone flagship that will hopefully take me through at least the first half of this year. Or until Microsoft gets off its low-end fixation and satisfies the needs of its biggest fans....More

It's been a while since the last What I Use, but there haven't been many major changes since late last year: Surface Pro 3 has become my go-to travel companion, I've added a third cellphone line for testing Windows Phone, Android and iPhone side-by-side, and have rotated through some new tablets and other devices. We've also switched from FIOS to Comcast and added to our set-top box collection....More